Start the Change
by queen-of-writers-block
Summary: When she starts her first mission with SG-1, Mia Bellucci gets more than she bargained for


I sat quietly, reading the latest mission brief in the relatively deserted canteen while I played with my long brown hair, wrapping it around my index finger and then pulling it out. It was so smooth and silky, and in that state where it was not wet but not dry either. I loved that feeling, it was so cool and light and it still smelled strongly of roses. Smiling to myself, I folded up the paper into four neat squares before pushing it into the back pocket of my greens.  
  
Pouring the rest of the glass of milk down my throat, I stood up and made my way out of the canteen towards the armoury. I was excited and nervous at the same time, this was my first mission and although I had been studying all of SG-1's recent missions, I could not help but wonder what lay ahead.  
  
I also felt privileged to be even going; after all, rookies were usually placed with other SG teams for training. As I arrived at the armoury. I was greeted with the familiar face of Major Carter, a woman I held a lot of respect for. We were similar in many ways, both becoming successful women in a mans world, and sharing most of the same interests, perhaps that is why we instantly clicked when we first met. I still called her Major Carter though; there was no room for familiarity in military situations.  
  
"Good Morning Major Carter"  
  
I said boldly as I stopped in front of Sam and saluted. My hair fell in front of my face then, and I cursed myself for forgetting to tie it up again.  
  
"Hey Mia"  
  
Sam returned with a grin. My formality was a joke between us and we often made it more noticeable just to see what others would say. I smiled back, poking my head around the doorframe to see who was inside but I could see little.  
  
"Teal'c is in there with Jack"  
  
Sam stated, noticing my curiosity  
  
"I'm not sure where Daniel is though, you know him, he's probably already at the Stargate waiting for us"  
  
"Yeah, he's certainly not one for being late"  
  
I added with a weak smile. Sam was worried about Daniel again, I could tell by the look on her face and the tone in her voice. She had told me how different he was before he ascended, and now that he was back, how distant he seemed. I had tried to comfort her of course, but knowing little about Doctor Jackson did not help me to do this very well. I frowned, and placed a hand gently on Sam's shoulder.  
  
"He's fine, I'm sure"  
  
I knew the words probably would not help Sam stop worrying, but the thought was there at least. As I removed my hand Jack came out of the armoury carrying his usual assortment of weapons.  
  
"Morning Mia, Carter"  
  
Jack said his voice lowering slightly as he said Carter. I was not sure about the pair's relationship at all, they always gave off mixed signals but she guessed that there was something more there than they were letting on.  
  
"Morning Colonel"  
  
I replied, noticing that Sam only nodded in reply. Jack smiled quickly, although it was not a full smile. I laughed to myself, I do not think Jack ever smiled properly; it normally took the form of a sarcastic grin. Not that I minded of course, he looks handsome to me whatever his facial expression although I think it would be quite strange to see Jack smile genuinely. Jack obviously noticed the uncomfortable silence and he started to move on, not before calling over his shoulder a farewell of course.  
  
"See you ladies later"  
  
I smiled and turned back to Sam, she was deep in thought, chewing on her bottom lip as she did so. I shrugged and made my way inside the armoury, I knew that I would never know what Sam was thinking about, I could only guess. As I weaved between the metal shelves and lockers crammed with weapons of all types, I soon found Teal'c, admiring a newly customised Zat.  
  
"They finally made you one huh?"  
  
I called out as I approached Teal'c.  
  
"Indeed"  
  
Teal'c replied, placing the zat into a holster on his belt and turning to face me  
  
"Good morning Mia Bellucci. I trust you are well"  
  
Teal'c added, with a small bow of the head  
  
"I'm good thanks Teal'c"  
  
I replied jovially, the thought of the looming mission making me excited again.  
  
"And yourself"  
  
"As well as could be expected"  
  
Teal'c answered, raising an eyebrow slightly as he noticed my change in clothes. Usually I wore my RAF uniform, some how unable to detach myself from my former career as a pilot, but today I was kitted out in the greens of the SGC. They were more comfortable than my RAF uniform surprisingly, but I still preferred grey.  
  
"Well I have to look the part"  
  
I joked, even though it was wasted on the seemingly emotionless Teal'c. I shrugged as I received another of Teal'cs raised eyebrow remarks and made my way over to the side arm cabinet, picking myself out a berretta and a few clips. I hated this part, true, the weapons were for our protection, but I hated to think of the time I might have to shoot an alien. Turning around I noticed that Teal'c had left and Sam no longer stood in the doorway. With a sigh at the realisation that I would have to remember the way to the gate room on my own, I started out of the door.  
  
Placing the berretta in the holster that was attached to my belt and shoving the clips in the side pocket of my greens, I took a hair tie from around my wrist and pulled my hair into a ponytail. I then twisted the hair around into a rather mangled bun and pulled another tie off my wrist before wrapping it around the twist of hair. Not the neatest bun in the world I decided, but it would do. It was not as if I was on the drill parade anyway and I seriously doubted Colonel O'Neil would be that bothered about the state of my hair. My boots made an odd clicking sound as I walked down the corridor, the freshly polished leather glinting in the light given off by the strip lights that lined the ceiling. I smiled at this, it had been a while since my boots had been out of the wardrobe let alone be polished and it felt good to know I was back in a complete uniform again, and not a mix of both my RAF gear and that of the SGC.  
  
The gate room was closer than I thought and I soon paced around a corner and nearly marched into one of the guards standing by the door, an M16 in hand.  
  
"Sorry"  
  
I muttered before stepping to the side and carrying on into the large room. A metal ramp led up to the enormous Stargate. At its centre a crystal liquid shone a sparkling blue, SG-1 already stood in front of it, the light rippling across them.  
  
"Do you have any idea how much it costs to keep that thing on?"  
  
Jack called, jerking his head backwards just as he did when he was not too impressed with a situation.  
  
"Sorry sir"  
  
I called back confidently but with a slight twinge of embarrassment as I paced up the ramp and took my position behind Sam and Teal'c.  
  
"Fall out"  
  
Jack called from the front as he started to move towards the crystal waters of the event horizon, Daniel at his side. Sam and Teal'c then followed, all four striding confidently through the gate. I was not so confident and I stopped just in front of the event horizon, my nose barely an inch from the rippling waters. I took a deep breath, feelings of apprehension, worry and fright surged through me, and I could not help but wonder what was on the other side and it was making me feel slightly less confident. However, a familiar and commanding voice soon brings me to my senses.  
  
"Is everything alright Sergeant Bellucci?"  
  
Came the deep voice of General Hammond over the speakers placed around the gate room. I turned around and saw General Hammond and others staring at me through a large pain of glass in the opposite wall, about a floor up.  
  
"I'm fine"  
  
I called back, holding my hand up and waving it slightly as I turned around and looked at the even horizon once more. Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward and through the gate. The experience was, for want of a better word, strange. It was like travelling through a tunnel of light that was constantly spinning around me. I saw stars outside of the tunnel, and planets, all around me but I still kept moving. Suddenly, an even brighter light appeared at the end of the tunnel and as I travelled towards it I tried to shield my eyes from it, such was its intensity. Then, everything stopped and the light vanished. I was standing in a small dingy room, dust all around me and very little light. It took my eyes to adjust to the change it luminosity but I soon saw SG-1 looking around the room. I felt very dizzy and somewhat nauseous but I tried to hide it, stepping forward confidently and down the small step that led up to the gate.  
  
Sam was examining the dialler, Teal'c and Jack were making their way towards the next room, weapons at the ready and Daniel was staring at a wall, seemingly concentrating, although I could not tell what on. I could not see anything on the wall, in fact, it looked rather blank so unable to stifle my curiosity I made my way over.  
  
"Anything interesting?"  
  
I tried, receiving nothing in reply. Either Daniel had not heard me or I was being ignored, I decided to try again. If this attempt at communication failed then I would not bother anymore and just leave all the science stuff to those who knew about it. I manoeuvred myself so that I could see what Daniel was looking at. I had to stand on tip toes but I soon spotted something. A small mark was imprinted into the wall and although it looked like nothing in particular, I could tell that some dust was covering up most of it. Moving away from behind Daniel I stretched out a hand and rubbed the dust away from the mark. That little manoeuvre most definitely caught Daniels attention as I soon found that his hand was on my wrist, pulling it back from the wall.  
  
"Careful"  
  
Was the only explanation I was provided with, as Daniel released his grip on my wrist. I brought myself up to full height again and frowned slightly, my curiosity most definitely not cured. At least I could now see the mark in its entirety. It was small, the shape of a bird but, it had the body of a woman. I frowned and crouched down to get a better look. It was a woman, knelt down and facing east, her arms were spread but they were not quite arms. Feathers were attached to her arms, making them look like wings, and there was a circle behind her head too, almost like a halo.  
  
"It's the symbol for Ma'at, Egyptian Goddess of truth and justice"  
  
Daniel explained without me even having to ask. I looked up at him; he seemed to still be in a state of concentration, stroking his chin with his left hand, his right arm was wrapped across his chest.  
  
"Was she a system lord?"  
  
I asked, trying to get more out of him. I normally did not care for this sort of thing but now that it came to it, I found the whole situation intriguing. It made such a change to my life as a pilot, and surprisingly, it was a welcome one.  
  
"She may have been, although I doubt she was very powerful. We haven't encountered her or her minions as of yet"  
  
Came another voice from behind me. I recognised it instantly, it was the voice of Sam.  
  
"There are no other markings around the room"  
  
Sam continued, moving closer to get a look at the symbol herself. Now there were three of us, just staring at the small symbol that was cut into the grey stonewall. I could not help but wonder what was on the others minds, as well as what the symbol could mean. Maybe this Ma'at used to live here, maybe this was the planet that she trained her jaffa. I shook my head, no matter what I thought I would probably be wrong anyway, after all, I was just a pilot.  
  
The sound of footsteps came from behind us and Sam and myself turned to see who they belonged to. It was Teal'c, returning from his scout around with Jack.  
  
"There is a small village close by. Major Carter, O'Neil has asked that you come with us and that Daniel Jackson and Mia Bellucci should stay here"  
  
"But there's nothing to look at"  
  
I said quickly but then I bit my lip. That probably was not the best thing to say. I was a newbie, I should do what I was told. Of course Teal'c raised his eyebrow at my comment, confirming my after thought that I should pipe down and do what I was told.  
  
"O'Neil believes that you would be better staying in the vicinity of the Stargate, just in case something goes awry"  
  
Teal'c clarified, although I had a suspicion that he was hiding something. He looked somewhat puzzled when looking at me, over what I could not tell, but he was confused about something. And surely I was supposed to be looking at other things than the Stargate, meeting the inhabitants and what not. I sighed, perhaps this was going to be just as tedious as my training back at the base.  
  
Once again footsteps echoed around the room and Jack appeared from the tunnel leading outside.  
  
"Come on guys, lets get going. And umm, Daniel? A quick word, alone"  
  
Jack ordered, motioning with a wave of his gun for Daniel to go to him, which he did, although somewhat uneasily, as he kept looking back at the symbol on the wall. The pair talked for a few seconds, I could not tell what was said, but Doctor Jackson seemed confused by Jack's words. It seemed something big was going on, and I was the only one not allowed in the loop. Not that it was a big deal, I was used to being left out of things, and besides, if it was important to me I would have been told about it.  
  
As the conversation finished, Daniel moved back towards the dialling device, and Sam, Teal'c and Jack headed outside, the sound of their footsteps reverberating off the walls until they had completely left the building. I rested my back against the wall, watching Doctor Jackson examine the dialling device. There was nothing for me to do here, nothing to look at or ask questions about, I might as well go back to the SGC and finish the write up of my last training mission. I rolled my eyes then, that mission had not exactly been a bundle of laughs either. I had been put in charge of a bunch of recruits that were even worse at this job than myself. And that was just the start of things, we had been given faulty equipment and an incomplete map. Something to test us to the limits maybe, but I thought it was going a little too far. One of the idiots almost shot me after all, true, they should not have even been pointing the weapon at anyone as it had not fired so that was no fault of our superiors. But if they'd given us working guns, then maybe the young corporal Jones would not have pointed his weapon in my general direction when he discovered it was not in working order.  
  
Reliving that moment proved to be a bad idea, as my back suddenly lost it's grip on the wall and I fell down . That would not have caused a problem if I had not have tried to prevent my collapse by splaying my arms out. I cringed as I heard the soft clicking noise as the symbol moved further into the wall. I had only touched it for a brief moment, but that, it seemed, was enough to set the device, whatever it was, in motion. Doctor Jackson obviously heard the noise as he was soon dashing over and pulling me up and out of the way of the symbol.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
He said quickly, looking backwards between me and the symbol that was moving further and further into the wall, akin to a button having been pressed.  
  
"I, I slipped and umm"  
  
I stuttered, angered at my stupidity but also puzzled as to why what I thought was just a stone carving, had become a button.  
  
"Never mind, stand back away from the wall" Daniel said sternly, holding an arm back to hold me back and taking out his side arm in his other hand. We both took a few paces backwards, eyes fixed on the wall were the symbol was. Nothing happened for a few moments, the symbol had stopped moving and we could hear no more sounds. But then something else clicked, the noise seemingly from in front of us and then it happened; the wall we were looking at started to slide away.  
  
I could not see much at first; the room behind the wall was so dark and there seemed to be no windows inside. I took a torch from the side pocket in my greens and shone it inside. The small beam passed over several box like objects but it was hardly enough to penetrate the thick darkness further inside the room. The dust falling from the ceiling did not exactly help either. When the wall stopped moving, Doctor Jackson took a few cautious steps forward and rested his back against the wall, peering around the corner into the darkness before turning again to face me. He motioned for me to move away from the doorway, like there was some sort of danger inside or something. But I just sniggered at his wariness and recklessly moved inside.  
  
Going against authority was a strange thing for me, I usually obeyed all the rules and did what I was told. But there was the odd occasion where I would just throw caution to the wind and act on my own. This was definitely one of those moments and Doctor Jackson seemed less than impressed.  
  
"There's no one in here" I called back, trying to make some sort of excuse for why I completely ignored his request "From all the dust this place obviously hasn't been used in years"  
  
I distilled the urge to tell Daniel to 'chill out'. I knew only too well that telling someone that only made things worse, it certainly made me angry when people said that to me anyway, I could not tell if Daniel would be the same. Shining the beam ahead of me and using my free hand to feel for things that could get in my way, I moved further into the room, searching for a light source.  
  
"Looks can be deceiving"  
  
Daniel called from the doorway; the soft sound of his footsteps followed me into the room, as well as the clicking sound of his gun sliding back into its holster.  
  
"Ain't it the truth?"  
  
I cheekily replied, looking at him over my shoulder for a moment, the light from outside only strong enough to show the shiny metal frames of his glasses. I returned to looking around the room, the torch beam showed many small objects on top of tables around the room, most covered in a shiny metal which looked like gold. I was not sure of course; the torch light was hardly effective.  
  
"It's a perfect replica of the temple at Karnak"  
  
I heard Daniel mutter as I stopped for a moment, turned to face the wall to my left and followed it with the beam of my torch. I took a few steps back ward as I did so, which was defiantly a bad idea as I soon walked into Daniel.  
  
"Sorry"  
  
I said quickly, turning around and shining the light on him. He still didn't look happy. I rolled my eyes at that and turned back around but Daniel snatched the torch from my hand and started shining it around himself.  
  
"You don't like me do you?"  
  
I asked, seemingly unexpectedly. It was a stupid question though, I had done noting but piss him off since we got here: the answer was obvious.  
  
"It's not that" Daniel started. He had a strange tone in his voice, as if he was not even thinking about the question but was being puzzled by something else. "You're just not acting yourself"  
  
Acting myself? What was that supposed to mean? I thought, frowning before moving around in front of Daniel so he did not have any choice but to look at me.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
I growled, hands on hips, my head cocked to one side, still frowning.  
  
"Ever since we arrived you've been acting strangely. Impulsiveness is not a crime Mia, don't get me wrong, but impertinence isn't you"  
  
Impertinence? Who did he think he was? Daniel did not even know me that well. If anyone was going to comment on me it would be Sam. She at least made an effort to talk to me.  
  
"Oh what would you know?"  
  
I growled, storming out of the dark room and back to the Stargate where I sat on the steps, head in hands. I know I had been a little impulsive back there, but impertinent? Was I really acting so differently to usual? Not that Daniel would know anyway, but his words still had me thinking.  
  
"Erm, Mia?"  
  
Daniel called from the other room, his voice tainted with distressed. I brought my head up to notice the other room was now completely lit up. It looked like the inside of an Egyptian temple, one recreated in a museum anyway. Beautiful hieroglyphs and painted figures lined the walls, golden jewellery lay next to painted pots and vases, and two large ostrich feathers stood either side of a golden thrown. I stood up and walked inside and turned to look where Daniel had last been, and still was.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
I asked, genuinely concerned. But Doctor Jackson said nothing, only pointed to the all in front of him. I looked at the wall, to find an almost life sized painting of a young woman, dressed in a white linen dress, an ostrich feather in her hair and long feathery wings for arms. She looked familiar, very much like the symbol on the outer wall, but also like someone else I knew. Then it dawned on me, it bore a striking resemblance to myself, only of course, I did not have wings.  
  
"This is a joke right?" I asked, laughing nervously "You thought if you put my picture up on this wall, we'd all have laugh? Yeah, well very funny and now can we go home?"  
  
My words were spoken quickly; I did not actually know what I was saying. The whole thing was strange.  
  
"I could just look like her host, right? A direct descendant or something?"  
  
"Ma'at was never actually thought to be a real person, just an idea" Daniel said slowly, his eyes fixed on the image painted on the wall "And even if she did exist, and she was indeed a Goa'uld, she wouldn't have been a System Lord, more like their ruler"  
  
"Their ruler?"  
  
I asked. Trying to get some more information out of Daniel was like drawing water from a rock.  
  
"It was believed that she was more of a concept than an actual Goddess. But knowing Egyptian religion generally followed the lives of the Goa'uld System Lords and having just found this world were people worship her..."  
  
"Wait a minute" I interrupted, stepping in front of Doctor Jackson once more to get his full attention "The people here worship this Ma'at? This goddess who has a striking resemblance to me?"  
  
Daniel nodded, and with that confirmed what I had been thinking. This must have been why I was told to stay here. Could not have the people of this planet thinking I was their goddess come to life after all. Come to think of it, I doubt I would even want them thinking that.  
  
"Mia, if Ma'at really was real, then this changes everything. It is believed that Ma'at was the daughter of Ra"  
  
"You killed Ra right?"  
  
I interrupted again, just making sure I understood the situation. Daniel nodded in confirmation  
  
"And he ruled over the others, but when he died, everything went a bit nuts and the System Lords started fighting amongst each other"  
  
I could tell Daniel was not too impressed with how I put things, but I obviously had the right idea so I carried on  
  
"But if this Ma'at, is his daughter, then she inherits what power and hold he had over the System Lords"  
  
As soon as the words slipped from my lips I realised what I just said. This was a major break through in our fight against the Goa'uld. If they believed that I was Ma'at, even for a little while, I could change the face of the war. It would definitely be a huge advantage for our side, especially now that the Goa'uld were no longer afraid of the repercussions of attacking earth or any other protected planet for that matter. 


End file.
